North Dakota House approves ending daylight savings time

North Dakota's House of Representatives passed a bill on Jan. 28 that would eliminate daylight savings time and keep the state on standard time throughout the year.

The state House voted 55-37 to pass the bill, which still needs approval from the state Senate and governor before it would become law. The bill does not impact time zones.

Fans of the bill argue that daylight savings time is too disruptive to people's sleep patterns and believe that North Dakotans would enjoy not having to fiddle with their clocks twice per year.

During the discussion, state Rep. Desiree Morton, a Republican, said that legislators heard testimony indicating that changing clocks twice per year has negative health effects. She also said that eliminating daylight savings time would help workers in the construction industry by giving them an extra hour of daylight in the mornings, which would enhance safety.

State Rep. Mike Schatz, a Republican, opined, however, that abolishing daylight savings time would make things harder on farmers, not easier.

"What they said was, ‘The sun will go down out west at 8 o’clock [p.m.].’ Then it’s going to come up earlier, and it’s going to be harder for him, as a farmer, to get his people to come to work at 6 o’clock rather than 7 o’clock. … So I’m going to vote no," he said.